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Huh, maybe there will be some pressure on LED lighting, then, which I would not mind. But CFLs really, really suck, and LEDs are still really expensive, so I'm still thinking that this move was premature.

CFLs have mercury in them! Is the EU going to fund dozens of recycling centers to handle CFLs? How will the EU ensure that everyone recycles their CFLs and doesn't just throw them in the trash? They better have made some legislation dealing with this issue.

In 1999 US coal burning power plants polluted the air with 48.7 tonnes of Mercury. 1 CFL contains about 5 milligrams of Mercury, or 0.000000005 tonnes. So people would need to throw away 9.74 billion CFLs per year to match yearly Mercury output of all coal fired plants in USA in 1999. Any decent quality CFL will last at least 5 years, often longer that that. So that means that 48.7 billion CFL's can be in circulation in USA and not exceed yearly Mercury pollution of coal burning power plants in 1999. This comes out to 159 CFLs per person in USA thrown away every 5 years. I have 9 CFLs, had them for at least 4 years already and none are yet to fail. I plan on storing all of my burned out CFLs and when i collect enough, I will drop them off at a recycling center somewhere. Judging from their failure rate, i will only have to do that once in my life.

In 1999 US coal burning power plants polluted the air with 48.7 tonnes of Mercury. 1 CFL contains about 5 milligrams of Mercury, or 0.000000005 tonnes. So people would need to throw away 9.74 billion CFLs per year to match yearly Mercury output of all coal fired plants in USA in 1999. Any decent quality CFL will last at least 5 years, often longer that that. So that means that 48.7 billion CFL's can be in circulation in USA and not exceed yearly Mercury pollution of coal burning power plants in 1999. This comes out to 159 CFLs per person in USA thrown away every 5 years. I have 9 CFLs, had them for at least 4 years already and none are yet to fail. I plan on storing all of my burned out CFLs and when i collect enough, I will drop them off at a recycling center somewhere. Judging from their failure rate, i will only have to do that once in my life.

Click to expand...

For a proper analysis you'd have to figure out how much mercury the power plants emit per KWh. Then compare that to how many kWh's you save using the CFLs over incandescent bulbs.

Let's say I have a 26-watt CFL that lasts for 4000 hours... That would be about 6 100-watt incandescent bulb lifetimes, adding up to a grand total of 400 kWh of electricity. The CFL would only use 104 kWh over those 4000 hours, saving 296 kWh of electricity. So burning 4000 hours of incandescent on Sunbury electricity releases 31.6 mg of mercury into the environment. Burning 4000 hours of CFL on Sunbury electricity releases 8.2 mg of mercury into the environment. If the bulb is broken and its mercury released then it is 14 mg (assuming 5 mg Hg in the CFL, which is about the norm).

In 1999 US coal burning power plants polluted the air with 48.7 tonnes of Mercury. 1 CFL contains about 5 milligrams of Mercury, or 0.000000005 tonnes. So people would need to throw away 9.74 billion CFLs per year to match yearly Mercury output of all coal fired plants in USA in 1999. Any decent quality CFL will last at least 5 years, often longer that that. So that means that 48.7 billion CFL's can be in circulation in USA and not exceed yearly Mercury pollution of coal burning power plants in 1999. This comes out to 159 CFLs per person in USA thrown away every 5 years. I have 9 CFLs, had them for at least 4 years already and none are yet to fail. I plan on storing all of my burned out CFLs and when i collect enough, I will drop them off at a recycling center somewhere. Judging from their failure rate, i will only have to do that once in my life.

Click to expand...

It has long been the custom of the people to take action, to take up arms as it were, when the corporations/governing bodies fail too, even though it may be an unfair burden to impose upon the individual, every major sociological/commercially viable change begins with baby steps, one at a time...unfortunately.

Don't you want to do what you can to save the World for yourself, your children/humanity as a whole irregardless of how insignificant that it may initially appear, every little bit helps just like every flood begins with but one drop of rain (apologies for waxing all philosophical there, truth is still the truth though, regardless of how it is presented.

"In 1999 US coal burning power plants polluted the air with 48.7 tonnes of Mercury. 1 CFL contains about 5 milligrams of Mercury, or 0.000000005 tonnes..."

Well thank you for pointing that out. In perspective then, CFLs aren't so bad. (sorry I never responded to your post; I didn't see it till today)

CFLs don't pollute that much mercury then, but because they would be burried in land fills, maybe the do more harm since they go directly into the ground as opposed to the air. And what goes into the ground seeps into the ground water and you know the rest of the story. That's just my wild speculation.

We might have our own version of the RoHS Directive. Any store selling any kind of electric good including light bulbs are required to have a system for recycling them, and accepting them from the public. This regardless of where the customer actually bought the product. There's a small enviromental fee added to these products which goes into a central fund that is used to pay the shops for the inconvenience of doing the recycling. So the system pays for itself and very little electrical goods end up in the landfill.

Meta

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